This is another of those Québecois families from who everyone seems to be descended, including Madonna, Camilla Parker-Bowles and Céline Dion. And like many others, the Cloutiers came from that same small region of the Mortagne, around St-Langis and Tourouvre. Denis Cloutier and Renée Brière were both born around 1565 or 1570 and married in the parish of St-Jean-Baptiste de Mortagne, where their son Zacharie was born on July 18, 1590. The church of St-Jean-Baptiste records the later baptisms of his siblings: Jacques (1601), Claude (1605), Loyse (born and died 1608). There were other, older children whose baptisms do not appear in the records: Michel, who married Jeanne Commanche; Nicolas, who married Catherine Roussel; Renée, who married Claude Noe; Louis, who married Madeleine Truchet; and Catherine, who married François Noe. Renée died in 1608 (probably giving birth to Loyse, her ninth child) and Denis then married Jeanne Rahir (widow of a man named Gaultier). They had four more children: Léonard (1609), Denis (born and died 1612), and twins Pierre and Michelle (1613).

Zacharie was working in Mortagne as a carpenter when he married Xainte or Sainte Dupont (c1596-1680, parents unknown, and the widow of Michel Lermusier) on July 18, 1616. They already had five children when they emigrated to Québec in 1634. Before leaving Mortagne they had contracted to buy a piece of land at Beauport, and Zacharie went on ahead of his family (with his friend Jean Guyon) and they worked during 1634 and 1635 clearing fields for the seigneur Robert Giffard (who had recruited a number of families from the Mortagne area). The indenture the two men signed at La Rochelle in 1634 still exists: it stipulates that Giffard will pay for the voyage and for food and lodging at Beauport for three years, and that each man could bring one family member (evidently Zacharie did not). After two years they could send for the rest of their families, and would be able to acquire their own land. Their families came over in 1635. Zacharie called his farm near Beauport "LaCloutièrerie." When he signed the deed he made the sign of an axe. By 1663 he had some 693 arpents and a town house in Québec city. There was a dispute over taxes and titles, and he sold the farm to Nicolas Dupont (presumably related to his wife) in 1670. He then moved his family to Château-Richer, where he died on September 17, 1677. Sainte died there on July 14, 1680.

Children: Zacharie (1617-1708, worked as a carpenter in Château-Richer, married Madeleine Émard in La Rochelle in 1648, 8 children including Geneviève, great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother of the Duchess of Cornwall); Jean (1620-1690, married Marie Martin, see below); Marie-Anne (1626-1648, married Robert Drouin - this was the first marriage contract ever signed in Canada); Charles (1624-1709, married Louise Morin, whose sister Agnès Morin was an ancestor of Joseph Arthur Martin); and Louise (1633-1699, married François LaMarguerie, no children; Jean Mignot, 14 children; and Jean Mateau, no children).

Jean Cloutier married Marie Martin, said by some sources to be the sister or the daughter of Abraham Martin dit l'Écossais, but other sources claim that there is no proof of her parentage. She died at Château-Richer in April 1699. They had fourteen children: first, an unnamed stillborn daughter in 1650; then Jean (1652-1709, married Louise Bélanger); Marie (1655-1713, married Jean-François Bélanger, 5 children); Marguérite (1656-1727, married Robert Caron, brother of our ancestor Joseph Caron); Louise (1658, married Antoine Toupin); Anne (1659-1695, married Pascal Mercier, 4 children); Sainte (1661?-1725, had an illegitimate son Louis by Nicolas Thibault in 1682, although she was already married [1681] to Charles Fortin, by whom she had ten more children); Joseph (1663-1671); Pierre-Paul (born and died 1665); Pierre (1667-1703, married Jeanne Verreau); Françoise (1669-1721, married Antoine Doyon and Joseph Paquet); Angélique-Geneviève (1672-1699); Agnès (1673-1704, married Paul Cartier and Joseph Fortin, brother of our ancestor Charles Fortin); and Marie-Madeleine (1676-c1701, married Julien Maufils, 2 children).

See Fortin for the descendants of Sainte and Charles Fortin.